<img width="538" height="541" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a402b9c7e80680e04a606jpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Though the medium is oil on canvas, Mann Gurung employs only sepia tones in his paintings, evoking the era of old photographs. Indeed, his artwork harks back to an older, more innocent time in Nepal. The  women still wear the fariya choli, and the men are in patuki and dhaka topi.Gurung’s second solo exhibition, Lost in Transition, is on at Siddhartha Art Gallery in Baber Mahal Revisited from 9 May - 9 June. Though most of the works are oil paintings, there are also graphite and ink drawings. They differ from his previous solo exhibition Power, Politics and War, which was predictably focused on politics. This time around, the emphasis is on a visual depiction of social change.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-karnali-on-canvas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Karnali on Canvas</a>, Sewa Bhattarai  <img width="640" height="920" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a402d9c7e80680e04a607jpeg.jpg" alt="">Gurung has captured women who collected milk in wooden theki, and have now turned to plastic Coke bottles. Though they cling to traditional dresses, they cannot help wearing Crocs on their feet. He has captured the dhyangro hand drum, an important instrument in his community that seems torn and neglected, and an old record player that looks like it hasn’t been used in a while.  These portraits are from Khorla, a mountain village in Gurung’s home district of Gorkha. Collectively, the impression is of a bygone era: of a place caught in transition as traditional values are fast being replaced by modern ideas. Gurung’s paintings capture the reality of most of Nepal today. With the youth migrating out, the elderly and women are left to fend for themselves. It is an uphill battle to cling to their traditional lifestyles.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-art-now-in-vienna/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal Art now in Vienna</a> Gurung believes he has captured the last of a generation that carries our identity, as younger Nepalis are ‘already fitted out in denims and pride themselves for embracing western culture’.“They have already made a transition from madal to box speakers, rodhi to mp3 players, hand sewn bags to polythene ones, handmade garments to imported polyester, bamboo baskets to zebra bags, and from sanduk to flatscreen TVs. We will soon lose the older generation, erasing hundreds of years of our identity, tradition and culture,” laments Gurung.His paintings force us to ponder identity, how we can hold on it, and whether it is even possible. The paintings are a testament to a lost time, and present Gurung’s concern for his own heritage, which he seems powerless to conserve. But at least he has preserved and documented a part of his culture in his art. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-craft-of-art/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Craft of Art</a>, Sewa Bhattarai <img width="1052" height="584" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108121140/636a402f9c7e80680e04a608jpeg.jpg" alt=""> Lost in TransitionSiddhartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal RevisitedUntil 9 June

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Lost in Transition

<figure><img width="800" height="789" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171148/636937139c7e80680e03fe16jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Diwakar Chettri</figcaption></figure>It does not matter who advised Prime Minister K P Oli about attending the dubious Asia-Pacific Summit in Kathmandu last week organised by the Korean Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. He should have refused to go.Even if he had been told that other Asian leaders would be attending, just glancing at the invitee list should have made it clear to him that they were ones currently ostracised by the international community: Cambodia’s Hun Sen and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.Hun Sen got himself elected again this year in an another staged election, and the former Khmer Rouge guerrilla who has brutally silenced critics is Asia’s longest-ruling prime minister. Aung San Suu Kyi may still retain her Nobel Peace Prize, but she has been stripped of numerous other international awards for her refusal to condemn her government’s ethnic cleansing of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/living-on-the-margins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rohingya minority</a> and imprisoning journalists who covered it. Nepal’s entire political leadership, including even President Bidya Devi Bhandari, tarred themselves by hobnobbing with this disreputable evangelical cult that has been known to buy political influence in soft states around the world. Seeing Nepal’s political spectrum on stage with <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Korean-movement-in-Nepal,2962" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Moonie figures</a> was not just shameful, but exposed gullibility and collusion with a shady born again sect.https://youtu.be/0A3PoCal9GoA promotional video (above) made by the Church boasts about how it has the backing of Nepal’s political leadership. It shows clips of UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal on hand at the Kathmandu airport tarmac to welcome the group’s ‘True Mother’ earlier this month, and other leaders receiving ‘blessings’ from her.      Moon’s Unification Church and Universal Peace Federation (UPF) has nearly 15,000 members and dozens of churches across Nepal. It has also bankrolled various political parties to give its Chairman and head of the Nepal Paribar (Family) Party Ek Nath Dhakal berth as Peace and Reconstruction Minister in successive coalition governments in the past four years. Dhakal has taken Nepal’s top politicians and MPs on frequent and lavish junkets to Korea. The Oli administration has been hapless about getting its timing right even when it makes positive moves. It squandered the PR  advantage of signing the much-vaunted Trade and Transit Treaty with Beijing earlier this year by installing a controversial head of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority on the same day. Headlines about the  appointment overshadowed the geopolitical significance of the China treaty. The government has done little to followup on the treaty, but that is another story we will go into some other time.Prime Minister Oli also announced a bold <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/not-just-social-security/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social security scheme</a> for private sector employees, but the extravagant publicity campaign, in which his face was plastered all over the country, undid any brownie points from it. It will take a long time to undo the damage from the ridicule the government and Oli personally suffered in the mainstream media and social networking sites.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/not-just-social-security/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Not just social security</a>, Josh Glover<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/social-insecurity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social insecurity</a>, Om Astha RaiMany Nepalis would probably have ignored all this nonsense if in the past nine months of assuming office the Nepal Community Party-led government had used its two-thirds majority to perform. Not only has the government not been able to deliver, its accomplishments in just about every sector has been less than underwhelming.Last week, we lamented in this space how the government has managed to spend only <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/communist-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">11% of its outlay for development projects in the first quarter</a>. In the same period, foreign direct investment in Nepal is down 75% from the same period last year, and it is the lowest in three years. Combined, these two trends mean that Nepal is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/roadblocks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unlikely to achieve the projected 8% growth target</a>.Successive governments have promised that the pace of development and economic growth will pick up once things get back to 'normal'. The war has been over 12 years, the constitution was promulgated three years ago, elections were over and done with and the three levels of government have been in office for nearly a year. When are we ever going to be 'normal'?Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/communist-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Communist capital</a>, Editorial<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/roadblocks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Roadblocks</a>, Ramesh Kumar<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/republic-of-rape/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A rape/murder case in Kanchanpur</a> that could easily have been solved with detective work at the local level was bungled with a cover up, and the framing of innocents until it grew into a crisis of national proportions.Such weakness and chronic failure, especially of an elected government with a strong mandate, is not good news for Nepal’s long-suffering people who have waited out two decades of conflict and transition. It also undermines the people’s trust in their elected representatives, and belief in democracy.The response of the prime minister and his spokesman has been a knee-jerk attempt to blame the messenger and lash out at critics in the time-honoured way of all failed leaders. Our unsolicited advice to the prime minister would be to make a list of can-do deliverables and just get them done. The public will give him credit without him having to beg for it. 		
			<h2>10 years ago this week </h2>		
		Ten years ago this week, the Nepali Times edition #428 of 6-11 December, 2008 had the front page headline ‘Red carpet’ alluding to the string of foreign visitors in Kathmandu. An excerpt from the analysis:Since the UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon in October, there have been four ministers from India, Britain, Denmark and China. The Chinese sent a military delegation and the British their army chief. Most visitors expressed concern about delays in the peace process, army integration and lamented the lack of consensus politics. They urged the Maoist-led government to deliver law and order, prove its commitment to democracy and the free press and ensure industrial security.Some visitors said privately they saw a gap between what the Maoists were saying and what they were doing. There was concern that Nepal, which two years ago was hailed a model country for conflict-transformation, was about to slip back into anarchy. Nepal had a great opportunity after the peace accord to restore stability and be stronger internally. But the country now seems to be going in the other direction. The only way to dissuade foreign meddling is to build consensus during the transition period and to cooperate in the constitution-drafting process. If the Maoists who lead the government can’t do this, opposing geopolitical blocs will start getting jumpy and try to influence political decisions. When that doesn’t work, they will interfere directly.

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The new normal

<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ball-in-balen-s-court">Nepal’s newly-installed Prime Minister Balendra Shah</a> unveiled his Council of Ministers after taking the oath of office on Friday in Kathmandu.&nbsp; Besides Nepal's pre-existing problems, his team will immediately have to deal with the fallout of the West Asia conflict to satisfy an electorate impatient for change. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won a majority in the 5 March election and capped the Cabinet size at 15. Shah, a structural engineer and musician, himself has taken charge of the Defence and Industry Ministries. There has been an attempt to make the Cabinet inclusive with women in five of the new portfolios.&nbsp; After much negotiation, the powerful Home Ministry, a bone of contention between Shah and RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane, has gone to Sudan Gurung, a hitherto little-known figure who <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/who-or-what-is-hami-nepal">rose to prominence after the September GenZ protest</a> and won the election from Gorkha-2.&nbsp; Gurung will be in charge of Nepal’s internal security apparatus and maintaining law and order. And with Gurung, a close ally of the Prime Minister, in charge, some note the Home Ministry will be a hook for Shah if Lamichhane, with his share of controversies, steps out line.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_c7725ea5fb9ffbf96df25a7b3122520b7ae3ee10548aed3f37781a7e5440e51a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260327090324_c7725ea5fb9ffbf96df25a7b3122520b7ae3ee10548aed3f37781a7e5440e51a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Notable RSP leaders, including vice-chair DP Aryal, were said to have been vying for the portfolio.&nbsp; Gurung is the founder of the non-profit Hami Nepal, which worked primarily in earthquake relief in 2015, and emerged onto the national stage during negotiations to appoint Sushila Karki as interim PM after the unrest. He was also involved in key negotiations that cemented Balendra Shah and Rabi Lamichhane’s political partnership in the runup to the election.&nbsp; Most new Cabinet members are not just first-time ministers, but are also freshmen lawmakers. Many are experts in their fields. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle is an <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-needs-to-rebrand-itself">economist </a>with degrees from the London School of Economics and Harvard, and was previously Chief Economic Advisor at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, and also served in Nepal’s National Planning Commission.&nbsp; Previously a member of Nepali Congress, Wagle exited the party in 2023 following differences with top leadership, and joined the RSP. Wagle won a by-election from Tanahu-1 in 2023 and won again from the same constituency in this month’s election.&nbsp; Shishir Khanal, who heads RSP’s foreign affairs department, has been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. &nbsp;Khanal is co-founder of Teach For Nepal, was briefly Education Minister when the RSP was part of the the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led coalition government in 2023.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_b1a670bac12e2bf4df955134f58c8de7718d48f6be4e1f2df7c7c52f82e36e42.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260327090324_b1a670bac12e2bf4df955134f58c8de7718d48f6be4e1f2df7c7c52f82e36e42" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Law Minister Sobita Gautam is a lawyer by profession and worked in governance and public policy before she was elected as the youngest MP in the 2022 election.&nbsp; Health Minister Nisha Mehta is a nurse and became a lawmaker under the Proportional Representation system in this election which swept the RSP to power with a near two-third majority.&nbsp; Education Minister Sasmit Pokharel, a first-time MP elected from Kathmandu-5, served as an aide to Balendra Shah when he was mayor of Kathmandu and a was member of the KMC City Planning Commission.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_5ed794d7bf0cac2844277521810225c4355746b9c3f7369f70cacc878c94641f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260327090324_5ed794d7bf0cac2844277521810225c4355746b9c3f7369f70cacc878c94641f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Biraj Bhakta Shrestha is Energy Minister, and also served as the Minister for Youth and Sports in the Dahal-led coalition government in 2024. Before joining RSP, Shrestha was elected to the Bagmati Provincial Assembly in the 2017 elections representing the r<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rsp-s-activist-dna">eformist Bibeksheel Sajha Party</a>. He will immediately face the challenge of addressing the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rough-road-ahead-for-new-nepal-rulers">impact of the West Asia war,</a> including rising petroleum prices and a shortage of cooking gas. Sita Badi, who was elected through the PR system, is Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens. She was born and brought up in the underserved and marginalised Badi community in Surkhet and has been advocating for the rights and welfare of women, children, and minority communities. Other ministers include RSP spokesperson Pratibha Rawal as Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration as well as Land Management, and Gita Chaudhary as Minister for Agriculture, Sunil Lamsal is Physical Infrastrucutre, Transport, and Urban Development Minister, Khadka Raj (Ganesh) Paudel as Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister. Dipak Sah is the Labour and Employment Minister, and Bikram Timilsina is Communication Minister.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_b67c2d199d4897031583a5b7ec7ce43e88771167696e6161665eeb5fca25d3ed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20260327090324_b67c2d199d4897031583a5b7ec7ce43e88771167696e6161665eeb5fca25d3ed" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  Meanwhile, RSP vice-chair DP Aryal, who many thought would be home minister because of his proximity with Rabi Lamichhane has been proposed as Speaker of the House.&nbsp; Aryal previously served two brief stints as the Minister of Labour when RSP was part of the RSP’s coalition governments in 2023 and 2024. As minister Aryal came <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/skeletons-in-the-cabinet-k5x6py1v">under scrutiny </a>for his involvement in an employment agency that was investigated for illegal acquisition of wealth in 2020. If appointed House Speaker, Aryal will be expected to play a neutral and non-partisan role in Parliamentary affairs. &nbsp; With the full Cabinet announced on Friday, Prime Minister Shah and his team now have their work cut out for them. &nbsp;The government’s first priority will be ensuring the safety and long-term security of the almost two million <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/migrant-workers-in-wartime">Nepalis living and working in the Gulf</a> amid the ongoing conflict in the region, and taking steps to cushion Nepal’s economy from the Israel-US war on Iran. The new leaders will also be tasked with implementing the findings of the Karki Commission report on the September violence that paved the way for the election and the rise of the RSP. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> <figcaption>Snapshots from PM Balen Shah's swearing-in ceremony</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20260327090324_69b36bc62737e44ade4080be36688f9c2f92201356e1df2072cef8ecc6a9be5d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_8646d490883154f696bcdc6e2375084419f2eefaaf0ef0c7e2710aa6e2d94a8a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20260327090324_8646d490883154f696bcdc6e2375084419f2eefaaf0ef0c7e2710aa6e2d94a8a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260327090324_89d17d6584593be1eb23eb1d4872c3b7c600e1620f3aca48dbff4838364a1e3c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20260327090324_89d17d6584593be1eb23eb1d4872c3b7c600e1620f3aca48dbff4838364a1e3c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Balen Shah swearing in NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;Full list of ministers: Prime Minsiter: Balendra Shah Home Minister: Sudan Gurung Finance Minister: Swarnim Wagle Foreign Affairs Minister: Shishir Khanal Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry: Sobita Gautam Energy, Water and Irrigation Minister: Biraj Bhakta Shrestha Education Minister: Sasmit Pokharel Physical Infrastrucutre, Transport, and Urban Development Minister: Sunil Lamsal Communication and Information Ministry: Bikram Timilsina General Administration Minister: Pratibha Rawal Women, Children and Senior Citizens Minister: Sita Badi Health and Population Minister: Nisha Mehta Agriculture Minister: Gita Chaudhary Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister: Khadka Raj (Ganesh) Paudel&nbsp; Labour Minister: Dipak Sah

Nepal swears in new Cabinet

Next to my home in Bhainsepati stood a dead Uttis tree next to a public tap. A nearby water tank built a year earlier had killed its roots.
If the tree collapsed, people living nearby and those queuing up to fetch water at the tap would be hurt. With the storm season approaching, the risk was obvious. The tree could also fall on my own house, so I volunteered to find a way to remove this threat.
Little did I know how difficult it would be. A forest officer acquaintance told me there is a special procedure for cutting risky trees. I contacted the Lalitpur District Forest Office (DFO).&nbsp;
He said a technical report from a field officer was needed, and passed on her number. When I called, she asked for the location, photos, and a video. I send them all.
The ward office also suggested I use Lalitpur Metropolitan City’s mobile app, Lalitpur Alert, to report the problem. I uploaded photos, and submitted the complaint. This seemed to be very easy and efficient.
Indeed, the next day the municipality called me back and I explained the situation. They said they could not act without permission from the DFO. I asked why the app existed if the city could not act on such complaints. The officer said he did not know. My happiness was short-lived.
A couple of days later, the app notified me that my problem had been solved, and the complaint was removed. But the dead tree still stood there defiantly.&nbsp;
A week later, two forest technicians arrived on a scooter to inspect the tree. They looked up at the tree and asked if I had a measuring tape so they could measure its diameter.
“You are the technicians,” I told them. “You came to inspect the tree, and you came without a measuring tape?”
I rummaged at home and found a tape measure. They got the diameter and said they would prepare a technical report, but I would have to obtain a recommendation letter from the ward office and submit it to the DFO.
“This tree is dead,” I told them. “It is on public land. You have seen it with your own eyes. You know it's dangerous, so write a report and arrange for it to be cut. Why do I have to run from office to office to apply for recommendation letters?”
Their answer was simple, yet expected: “Those are the rules.”
They left, and I gave up. Two technicians spent half a day visiting the site. The metropolis runs a complaint system with a mobile app funded with public money. The ward office has staff to solve problems. Yet none of these institutions took the responsibility to remove a dangerous tree.
Everyone is busy citing rules and regulations and passing the buck. Weeks passed. Everyone reacted to the problem, but no one took any responsibility to resolving it.
Then, one bright December morning under a deep blue sky, a few neighbourhood boys were swinging their axes on the trunk. They had no proper equipment, no safety gear, and no professional experience.
I gave the boys some money and so did a neighbour. It took an hour or so for the tree to come crashing down safely. We had paid to have the tree cut illegally, and the matter ended there.
Multiple government offices, technicians, procedures, and mobile apps could not remove a dangerous tree, and we had to break the law to cut it. The tree is gone now, but the real problem remains: an inefficient bureaucracy.&nbsp;
It is perhaps symbolic that the tree is the election sign of the Nepali Congress, which was part of Nepal's governance and bureaucracy for decades and did not perform well in this month's election.&nbsp;
That is the bureaucracy that the new RSP government now has to get to work. But it will not be easy.
I posted on Facebook: ‘When people feel leaders have grown arrogant or corrupt with power, they change their minds and their votes. If those who replace them follow the same path, voters will again change their minds and votes.’
I continued: ‘The strength of democracy lies in this simple principle: the more citizens act as independent voters, the stronger democracy becomes. The more they behave as party loyalists, the weaker it grows. If we want a better system, we must demand deep reform of the state bureaucracy and hold institutions accountable.’&nbsp;
The first responses came from two senior government officials. They told me privately that they agreed by 200% but could not say so publicly.
It is quite normal for a Nepali to get the run around in government offices, it is almost a given to be asked for a bribe. As an environmental reporter and citizen, I have numerous such examples.
It is not just one sector that has been suffering. It is everywhere, and this is just an example of how complicated our bureaucracy is. As a 40 something person, I am old enough to remember the 1990 pro-democracy movement, &nbsp;the Maoist insurgency. Many promises made then by the politicians were broken.
We fought for rights, we fought for regime change. The country has changed political systems several times, from monarchy to multiparty democracy and finally a republic.
Yet one thing that remains largely untouched or reformed is our inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy. The new government, to be led by the youngest prime minister in our history must start this reform if it wants to deliver.&nbsp;
Otherwise, we may have to keep changing governments every few years, and still find ourselves unable to legally cut down even one dead tree.

A dead tree tests Nepal's bureaucracy

On Friday, Balendra Shah is taking his oath of office as Nepal's prime minister in a capital city of which he was a mayor till six months ago.
At 35, he will be among Nepal’s youngest prime ministers. His reticence and reclusiveness have reinforced his brand as a doer rather than a talker. This was a persona he cultivated as mayor of someone who cleaned up the city by managing garbage. But he also chased off sidewalk vendors in an effort to ‘beautify’ the city.&nbsp;
After being elected, Shah did not attend RSP events in official capacity, and he was absent at an MP orientation last week.&nbsp;
His refusal to engage with the press, and even stopping to post on social media, have added to the air of reclusiveness. But as prime minister, he may have to communicate more even if it just to stop conspiracy theories and intrigue.&nbsp;
The people he will now represent would like to know, and have a right to know, what he is up to. Otherwise the feeling will grow that Nepal is entering uncharted territory. Governance, the economy and investment do not like uncertainty.
Political scientist Pyakuryal notes that calling Balen a 'man of few words' may serve as a useful epithet if he governs with quiet efficiency rather than fanfare. "But as Prime Minister, he must engage the nation’s will, not simply manage from above," she says.
She adds: "The real test lies in his choice of style: will he lead exclusively, keeping decisions close, or inclusively, opening space for dialogue and shared ownership of governance?"
Nepal's newly-elected lawmakers were sworn in on Thursday. And once sworn in as PM on Friday, Balendra Shah is set to appoint a ‘minimalist’ Cabinet. Although the Constitution caps the size of the Council of Ministers at 25, the party has decided to stick to maximum 18 and not split ministries to accommodate loyalists as was done in the past.&nbsp;
&nbsp;"The Cabinet must support the leadership of the Prime Minister while ensuring accountability to the Parliament,” notes political scientist Sucheta Pyakuryal. “But the questions that come to mind are: will the RSP MPs readily submit to Balen’s leadership and is Balen’s absence from the party’s official events an unwillingness or hesitation to submit to the party?”
Prime Minister Sushila Karki and her ministers ended their interim tenures this week, and she was lauded for upholding her commitment to hold a free, fair and peaceful election. But her image was tarnished for her reluctance to release the investigation report on the September violence, as well as recommending her Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal for a National Assembly seat, and her personal secretary to the National Trust for Nature Conservation. President Ram Chandra Poudel has put Aryal’s nomination on hold. &nbsp;
The Investigation Commission report leaked on Wednesday said the state failed to stop the firing on protestors by Police on 8 September and blamed the Army for not preventing the arson next day. It recommended the prosecution of prime minister KP Oli, home minister Ramesh Lekhak, and Police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung.
Notable names said to be in consideration for the Cabinet include many who are experts in their fields, and RSP wants a young lawmaker as Speaker. The new government will plunge headlong into the economic fallout of the West Asia war.
RSP, with its near two-third majority, does not have to placate any coalition partner, so Nepal is at long last expected to have a stable government after 35 years. Despite hopes that there will not be the usual horse-trading this time, there is tension between supporters of RSP chair Rabi Lamichhane and Balendra Shah. The two have been negotiating in hotel rooms for Cabinet posts for loyalists.&nbsp;
Shah’s larger-than-life online persona and nationwide appeal delivered the RSP its overwhelming electoral victory this month, and this makes the party’s core leadership beholden to him. To what extent is Shah willing to meet Lamichhane’s demands is the critical question, and we will know the answer by this weekend.
Says Pyakuryal: “Because this election showcased personality politics rather than the regular party politics, the dangers of ego-clashes, power-tussles and intraparty realpolitik become very real and this kind of equation can greatly hamper the spirit of democracy, representation and collective good."

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Ball in Balen’s court

Nepal’s new government hit the ground running with the arrests of former Prime Minister K P Oli and home Minister Ramesh Lekhak early Saturday morning.&nbsp;
Their dramatic detentions followed an inquiry commission report recommending that Lekhak, Oli, and former Police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung be investigated and prosecuted for negligence in failing to stop the killing of 19 young protesters by security forces during the protests on 8 September.&nbsp;
Interim PM Sushila Karki’s government faced considerable criticism from GenZ activists at the end of her 7-month tenure for failing to release the report and hold the previous UML-NC coalition to account.&nbsp;
Karki had left any decision on the report’s findings to new RSP government, but her government released it after the content was leaked earlier this week, a day before Nepal’s newly elected lawmakers took their oath of office.
By making the arrests of Oli and Lekhak as its first order of business, the new government, and especially Home Minister Sudan Gurung and Prime Minister Balendra Shah, have tried to show that they are decisive and mean business.&nbsp;
It has been hailed by many as signalling that Nepal’s new and young leadership will back up its pledges with action. However, others including the UML and some constitutional experts, say that the arrests have not followed legal procedures. The UML has mobilised its affiliated groups to start nationwide street protests.&nbsp;
The main divide seems to be over the perception that the new government is only interested in justice for the perpetrators of the 8 September Parliament massacre, and not against those who organised arson and vandalism of government buildings, homes of politicians, businesses and the media the next day.&nbsp;
While some celebrate what they see as the beginning of justice for the victims and survivors of the September violence, political analysts and legal experts express alarm over a lack of adherence to the rule of law.&nbsp;
K P Oli has a lot of experience being behind bars. He was jailed a dozen times in 1970s by the Panchayat regime for his extreme left activism and then spent 14 years in prison between 1974-1988.
Critics argue that the former leaders were denied due process and label their arrest a “political vendetta."
RSP supporters had made similar arguments in October 2024 and April 2025 that the arrest of party chair Rabi Lamichhane over misappropriation of funds from numerous cooperatives were &nbsp;politically motivated.
‘What is happening is unacceptable,’ wrote former minister and diplomat Nilamber Acharya wrote on Saturday morning. ‘Such acts of revenge and crackdowns do not bode well.’
In response to accusations of the arrests being partisan and politically-motivated, Home Minister Sudan Gurung took to social media, saying that the new government is fulfilling its promises: ‘No one is above the law,’ he wrote. ‘This is not revenge, it is the beginning of justice. I believe now that the nation will now take a new direction.’
There is also concern the new leadership has jumped the gun to implement the findings of the inquiry commission, which has itself been criticised in some quarters for concentrating on the events of 8 September rather than investigating the perpetrators of the anarchy on 9 September.&nbsp;
The first meeting of the Council of Ministers made the immediate implementation of the GenZ Movement Inquiry Report its first priority.
But there are questions as to whether the execution of the report will be impartial. Home Minister Gurung will now dictate how the recommendations &nbsp;will be conducted, since he is himself referenced in the report in connection with the unrest on 9 September.&nbsp;
In fact, the report also outlines how supporters stormed Nakhu Prison on 9 September to organise Rabi Lamichhane’s jailbreak. Will Minister Gurung also go after his own party's leadership? &nbsp;
With the UML already calling for nationwide protests against the detention of its leaders, there is concern that Nepal is plunging straight into turmoil instead of stability.
The UML leadership has been unrepentant about the 8 September events. Oli has defiantly blamed infiltration and outside forces for the killings, and unlike the Nepali Congress the UML has not managed its own leadership changeover.&nbsp;
The NC under Gagan Thapa as well as the Nepali Communist Party of Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal have so far been silent about the detentions even though former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak is from the NC.
Oli and Lekhak’s arrests will now be challenged in the courts. But their detention also signals to Nepal’s political old guard that the tables have turned: legacy leaders cannot be complacent and assume they will disappear from national consciousness for past deeds without being held accountable for what happened during their watch.
The RSP government under Prime Minister Balendra Shah seems determined not to let bygones be bygones. But while that is all and well, it remains to be see whether the party can deliver on the need of the electorate for tangible governance reform.
The danger is that the new rulers may be defined by the same tactics of political revenge as its predecessors in the name of meting out justice.

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